Hades and the texture of the world Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Hades and the texture of the world Crash! Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Updated on 10 May 2019 1 comment Hades is the latest game from Supergiant, a studio that sometimes seems to rival Klei Games in terms of classiness and poise and sheer polish. Hades is all about ancient gods smashing things up in the underworld. It's a Roguelite in which you fight your way through a shifting maze of classical horrors again and again and again. There is so much that's good about it I'm aiming to write something more comprehensive next week. For now, though, I wanted to talk about something I probably don't think about enough in games: the texture of the in-game world. This is mythology, right, so it's all ancient temples and grandeur. What makes Supergiant's spin so memorable, though, is that the art really delivers a sense of what this world is like to touch. And what it's like to touch is slightly surprising. Everything around you in Hades is made of stone, but it's stone that seems to shatter like glass. It's glossy and heavy, but it's also fragile. It splinters and explodes as you barrel your way through the world, giving everyone you encounter a bit of a shoeing. Are you powerful, or is the world flimsy? Glossy, polished, angular stone. This gives Hades a good deal of its character, I think. What a strange, lurid, heavy crystalline world this is. And it's all in service to the theme. Gods are weird in Hades, as they are in a lot of mythology. They're skittish and decadent and childish and unpredictable, and they like lavish temples of smooth reflective surfaces. And the whole thing's a bit precarious, too. These creatures fight all the time and fall out and smash each other in, and so their world has retained some of that depraved delicacy. Lots of games come with their own textures, I think. I can't even picture Tomb Raider without hearing, somewhere in my head, that deep, gritty shifting sound, of heavy stone, scattered with sand, moving over heavy stone. I can't think of Fortnite without the cartoonish jelly wobbling of the environment when it's under stress coming to mind. One of the reasons these worlds are so appealing is that we know what they look like, because we can see it for ourselves, but the animation and sound effects also allow some part of the brain to create a model of what they would feel like, too. And for Supergiant, the land of the ancients is an old Vegas pleasure palace, fallen on hard times and filled with razor-sharp edges waiting to be exposed. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. 14 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 34 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Sennheiser's legendary HD 599 open-back headphones are just £70 at Amazon in the Prime Early Access Sale Comfortable with neutral sound and a wide sound stage. Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. 1 Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store